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Something most amazing happened if you were at least a teenager in the 1970’s. It was the dawn of funk music and American legendary band Kool in the Gang were turning out hit after hit that baptized the soundtrack to our lives
I thought this was limited to my life in the U.S. However, watching the Kenyans at KICC vibin’ to Kool and the Gang’s live performance, in Nairobi, made me realize that the experience was clearly more global than I imagined.
Celebration, Jungle Boogie, Hollywood Swingers, Funky Stuff, Ladies Night were songs that had us ‘movin’ and groovin’ since the early 1960’s, were the headline act for this very upscale edition of Blankets and Wine Festival.
In this version there were no blankets and plenty of wine. I was also far from the usual family affair with ticket prices at 5K, 10K and 20K. But Kool and the Gang is not your usual band.
This is an iconic outfit with 2 Grammy awards that still does 150 concert dates a year.
It is still hard to imagine that one of those concert dates was here in Nairobi. If folks back home in the U.S. only knew. They have chances to see Kool perform live and now, so did I, sitting all the way in Africa.
This fact alone bridges the gap immensely in the real and perceived differences between the so called ‘first world and third world’.
It is true, Kenya does not get many A - List performers coming through with the exception of Chris Brown a few months back.
I love Chris Brown but not enough for a flight, hotel and 20 K ticket. That was way too many logistics for me.
But let’s face it, Johnny Gill and James Ingram came about 20 years past their prime musical.
It is the same for Kool and the Gang but the biggest difference is that they were my musical pacifier and underscored my love for funk that made ‘my backbone slip’ as we say when you are dancing to your ‘jam’.
They have more hit records than Gill and Ingram combined that kept us on the dance floor for a very long time. In 2016, I sang along to their performance for 2 hours. T
hey still have that mesmerizing power over me, transporting me instantly to my musical childhood. Aaah!
